Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) News: 18 October 2021 -

Each business day, MSSP Alert broadcasts a quick lineup of news, analysis and chatter from across the managed security services provider ecosystem.

The Content: Written for MSSPs, SOC as a Service (SOCaaS), Managed Detection and Response (MDR), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) and MSP security providers — and those who need to partner up with such companies.
Frequency and Format: Every business morning. Typically one or two sentences for each item below.
Reaching Our Inbox: Send news, tips and rumors to [email protected].

A. Today’s MSSP, MDR, XDR and Cybersecurity News Alerts

1. Sophos CSP Partner Program: Sophos is well known for its MSP partner program. That MSP market focus continues. But keep a close eye on the Sophos Cloud Security Partner Program as well. We'll share more thoughts on that soon.

2. Partnership - SD-WANs: Telefónica Tech and Fortinet have expanded their strategic alliance. The latest move involves a new global SD-WAN managed service. The new service, called flexWAN by Fortinet, converges networking and security functionality for customers that have on-site and remote workers. The service will debut in Spain and then extend to Europe and the Americas, Telefónica Tech and Fortinet indicated. Exact timing for the service in each region was not disclosed.

3. Partnership - SMB Security and Compliance: Telkom Business, South African telecommunications provider operating in more than 38 countries across the African continent, has embraced BlackFog, for SaaS-based data privacy, data security and ransomware prevention services. Through the partnership with BlackFog, Telkom Business provides small and midsize enterprises (SMEs) with "software that monitors enterprise compliance with global privacy regulations such as the POPI Act and GDPR," the two companies say.

4. Hosting Outage: SmarterASP is experiencing a service outage in the European Union, according to the service provider's status dashboard. An independent Facebook group includes claims that some SmarterASP customers have lost their data. We've reached out to the company for comment.

5. Ransomware Trends: North America has become the world's biggest victim of ransomware attacks - paying a hefty $131 million in cryptocurrency to criminals in the span of a year - in step with the rapid rise of cryptocurrency adoption, a new study by Chainalysis showed, according to Business Insider.